The clank of weapons sounded at the gate; the Thracian spearmen were coming to relieve the Batavians. At the same moment the bear-leader and the cripple emerged from the thicket at the left; the former gave the animal to Rignomer, who tried to drag it with him by the leather collar toward the camp. But the bear resisted, growling and bracing herself on her hind paws, as she looked beseechingly with her intelligent eyes at her master. "Come, come, Bruna," urged the latter--"they are good people (he stooped and whispered in her ear) won't you go yet? Didn't you understand?" He scratched his head in perplexity. Then the cripple limped forward, took from his moleskin knapsack a narrow long blue kerchief,--it looked like a girdle,--and handed it to his master. The latter, laughing, gave it to the Batavian. "Yes, yes. That will help. Hold it before the animal. No! Not in front of her eyes: her nose. There! See how she sniffs? She is getting the scent. Are you surprised? Yes, the cloth belonged to Bruna's dearest playfellow. Go on slowly. You see, she is following like a lamb. Well, greet the Roman camp for me, Bruna: I'll soon come for you." CHAPTER XXX. During the following night Saturninus made a little reconnoitring expedition northward and, as far as it was possible to venture into the swamps without trustworthy guides, towards the east. But he was compelled to return to camp about noon without success. "They are evidently hiding in the northwest," he said angrily to his best officer, Decius, as they rode side by side. "But none of the guides will go in that direction, and we cannot penetrate into those forest-clad mountains by force until Nannienus arrives. If we had only brought his troops with us by land! It is almost useless, it seems to me, to build galleys to blockade the lake." "Yes," Decius assented. "The Barbarians must have burned all their boats, or carried them inland: not one is to be seen." Directly after the General's return a Batavian came to his tent, and asked to see him alone. "What do you desire, brave Rignomer?" "To report myself for punishment. I drank too much wine." "When?" "Last night." "How? While on guard outside the camp?" "No, after I was relieved." "The trader will be scourged. Who sold it to you?" "No one. That was just it! I shouldn't have drunk so much if I had bought it. But given! A present of Massican wine! Who can resist it?" "No German, it seems. And you report for punishment? Of your own free will? Highly improbable. You were probably detected and wish to anticipate?" "No: no one discovered me. When I was relieved, I had been completely sobered by fright." "Why?" "My lord,"--he spoke hesitatingly,--"it is about the Idise." "Who is that?" "Why, the red-haired wood nymph." "What of her?" asked the Illyrian eagerly, now keenly intent. "My lord, I wish her well! As--as we all do." "As we all do?"